We’re Baaaaaack

Back in Tarifa, Spain, after a long, but fruitful, few days of travel. Matthias and I were on different flights, because – as you may have read from previous entries – I needed to book on miles and it was too expensive for us to take the same flights. We both had hellish connections – me through Chicago and London, and Matthias through DC and Frankfurt – to Madrid. However, I was fortunate enough to get bumped, twice, before leaving Tampa, and besides making $600 in airline vouchers from American Airlines, I got to fly to Madrid via Miami. Much nicer!

Matthias and I met in Madrid the next day and took the overnight bus to Tarifa, where we moved into our rented apartment – actually a house – which turned out to be better than we expected. While we are no longer directly on the beach, we are on the edge of the old town (quiet so far…) with a roof terrace that has views of the sea and the town (you've got to click on the photo above to get a better look at the dog enjoying the same view as we are!) My only complaint is that the house is cold and damp…even when it’s warm outside. It must be nice during the intense heat of summer, but for now we’ve always got blankets around us when we’re here.

The new computer is great. I take it to school (started Spanish classes again this week) and can connect to the Internet from there as well as a number of bars/cafes in town. In addition, we listed to music and watch movies in the evening (while huddled under covers for warmth!)

I had planned to post this before this past weekend’s Carnaval and talk about how much I was looking forward to it, but the weekend has now passed, and I can now say how much I (we ) enjoyed it. Besides the street-festival atmosphere, I really enjoyed the local singing groups – men dressed in themed costumes singing about life and local politics (okay, I didn’t understand it all at the time, but I bought the “programs”, which included the song lyrics…) ¡Que divertido! (what fun!)

You can see more photos by following the link to the left. I´ve only got one more week of class and then another week before Matthias´ cousin Katja comes to visit. Then, I believe, we are off to see Portugal (finally!)